 Hi, hi everyone. Hi for the school. So my name is Diana Martin and I'm here today to talk to you a bit about the importance and challenge of platform product manager. So first of all, it's really a pleasure to be here with you. I think it's a great opportunity to be part of this community and kind of share a little bit something. And some sharing some knowledge also really to to be part of this kind of culture of product discipline and methodology. So really, really a pleasure to to be here. So for for today, and I bring to main topics of agenda. First one, it's really about what is a platform and it's important. And the second part will be more related about what are the challenge that as a platform product manager. We usually found and how to tackle those are actually should I say how to try to tackle those and first things first, and allow me to introduce myself properly. So I'm, I'm working as a lead product manager for Farfetch in the platform solution. So Farfetch is a global platform for luxury that basically connects creators creators and customer. And I've been working in this kind of product area for almost four years. And before I had work in the telco company in the telco industry. So also in the product area. So I guess it has been quite quite a journey in this product management area. So, starting with the with the point that is more interesting and the reason why we are here today. And I guess let's start really for the with the basics and what is a platform and it's important. And probably when we think about the platform, we can have kind of this kind of idea about really a platform that we are usually found in the in the polls or kind of in the sea. And it's something that elevators and allow us to jump. It's also something that probably can allow us to have a broader view of the world, kind of have kind of holistic view of everything. And I think we would be satisfied if someone says this is a platform. I think we would all of course agree. On the other hand, we can also think about something like this. So a train station where we have kind of platform 89. In this case, we are in the area it seems. And we have kind of all the elements that are part of the platform. So we have kind of the foot machine we have the clock, we have kind of the structure and the iron structure. But at the same time, we have kind of two main players. We have kind of us, the people that are waiting for the train and that are kind of waiting for something to happen and to take action to, in this case, to go to somewhere. And we have kind of the train that will basically drive us to somewhere. And it's basically kind of the way of transportation that we are waiting. So the other part when we think about platform that probably it's something that comes always to mind when when we are thinking about platform in a more tech perspective and are these kind of icons. And first thing when I look to these icons, it's that there are clearly some patterns in terms of design, in terms of colors, in terms of how these are kind of adapt to a modern customer. But of course I think here we can extrapolate that there are a lot of platforms. There are some exchange platforms of course that are very related with communication or with kind of content platforms. And then we have kind of the maker platforms where we can think about kind of some content platforms as due to the or the Instagram, but we can also think about even open sources platforms as for example the Android. So how can we connect dots from jumping into the first platform that we're really elevating ourselves into kind of a normal platform that is part of our daily lives when we go to work. And how can we connect with this kind of platform world that is everywhere that probably when we look into our phone we have three, four platforms probably in the main screen. And at the same time in the news, we can see any kind of update without having the world platform attached. So really trying to connect the dots in between this and we can say that really that a platform is kind of a business model that really creates this value by facilitating the change between two or more interdependent groups. And usually these groups are the consumers and obviously the producers. So when we're talking about the train, we were saying that people are waiting for the train. So we have kind of the consumer that is the one that is waiting for that service that the train will have. And we have kind of the producer that is the train that will drive us somewhere. And if we go very quickly to kind of the Facebook or kind of the YouTube example, we can take as example that obviously in the YouTube we have kind of the videos producers and the content creators for those videos. And at the same time we have us that are kind of consuming and hearing that music. So we can say obviously that a platform is kind of when the economic value of every body that uses it kind of exceeds the value of that company that created it. And that's a platform. And I'm really quoting Bill Gates here, but I guess it represents this kind of change that really is more than the sum of the parts. And that's quite kind of mind blowing when I think about what this represents in terms of change. And this is really a big picture change because if in the past we were thinking and even today of course there are still a lot of business models that really are kind of using this traditional value chain where kind of each value creation is very linear. And in one way what we see in a platform ecosystem is that the value is creating two ways and really continues along the way. So there are some bits here and I will touch those also a little bit in the second part that we need to see really as kind of the main factors that empower the value of the platform. And the main one will be really connected with this network effect. So as we were saying, there are always kind of at least just use their sites that create this content and value for each other and for the platform as an ecosystem. And at the same time, there's kind of this world, this world, the scalability that will allow us to jump from kind of the basic and then allow us to jump into a new model very quickly. And this will be really the key of any platform because it will kind of create and allow this is this is a symmetrical grow in a sense that this platform ecosystem will kind of create complementary markets and kind of another chance of development that may also allow to develop sideline opportunities. And the last part is of course, how there is this chance to have this horizontal communication and collective intelligence since we will have a lot of effortless interaction and analysis that will come across the dots. And that will basically will create this kind of new business and consumer expectation. So, of course, this sounds great. This sounds really something huge. And it's really a pleasure, of course, as a platform product manager to be part of this ecosystem, but of course, this also brings a lot of challenge and also brings a little bit of additional kind of responsibility to have things together and to build our products. So, what I try to bring here, it's a little bit, what are the most common challenge that we have as a platform product PMs, and really have to try to tackle them. And to be very honest, it's really a try. And it's a view on some tips to kind of overcome some of this challenge, but I guess this needs of course to be seen in terms of context and in terms of an ecosystem that we are working with. So, the first kind of tip and challenge that I bring here is the challenge that in our job, we really need to understand the big picture and aim for an holistic view. And if we, if we look at the end quote team directly, John Maeda in the book from loss of complexity, one of the laws that he mentioned is really that knowledge makes everything simple. So, of course, this is really easy to say. But as a, as a platform product manager, we really should seek for that knowledge. And the first things first, right, so let's try always to understand the basics. From the basics here about the informal organization, how things work, how things working formally, how people relate, how, how, how things influence each other, and until the basics about the platform architecture. And it's it's true that we work in a product area, and we don't need of course to be tech experts or architecture expert. It's what we need to understand the basics of how things relate and how things influence, because it will certainly help also in the other conversation. And I guess also very related with this kind of point that knowledge makes everything simpler. It's the, the part in terms of don't be afraid to ask, there aren't ever stupid question. I guess if there's one thing that I learned in the last year, it's really that doing smart question, it's actually very hard. It's almost an hour. So we really should try to improve it and keep asking questions and keeping better in asking questions, because probably the questions that we are having are the questions that most of the people also have. So there's two ways probably they are doing the questions because they're in the same position as you, or they are doing the questions because they are thinking how to formulate those. So really, there's there's a chance to learn from it. The second note here, it's, of course, we need to understand that we need to ask questions, but at the same time, we need to listen to listen and we listen, we need to listen everyone kind of wisely and connecting the dots. And someone told me some years ago that one of the kind of main positive points that we can find in the product manager is really kind of the art of listening. And I guess this is really true because we kind of understand the context where we are and how can we act as well on kind of what the others are saying and really saying I guess that's kind of the true meaning of it. And the third part. It's really kind of I'd say more personal team, but really create a group of people that you can trust, learn and rely on them. So probably in our daily lives and in our professional lives, we will be working in a lot of projects, we will work in a lot of different teams. And of course, people can go and kind of projects and point of views are part of decisions that you will be kind of part of that organization. But if you have a group of people who can trust, learn and rely on, at the end of the day, you can always kind of come to that group and really kind of connect the dots and understand something works together and really make those relations. Out of the projects, out of kind of the groups that you work hard. And that's a thing that I consider very important to have kind of this notion of a big picture. The second point. It's the challenge about stakeholders. So this one is a very known one as a platform product manager probably we will be managing a lot of kind of different stakeholders at the same time. And we will be managing different kind of stakeholders from customer and really the business and to other product managers to other obviously areas of the company from design tech architecture. So, in this point, I said that it's very important to allow everyone to work collaboratively. And so, and it's also part of making them part of the problem. So, attending meetings, schedule type sessions, it's all part of that sinking process. And it's also a way to to allow people to be part of the equation and not to be so concerned about really managing that. The other part is really about transparency and the definition of ways of working. Of course, that when dealing with stakeholders, there's probably a kind of a line in between what we can say or we can say or how to say it. But it's very important also to bring this layer of transparency to the relationship and allow kind of what is the contract and the way of work. That people will kind of want to deal. And we have here a image of Dr. Strangelo. And I'd say it's, we should always be part of the same table, right? We always want kind of to choose a direction. And let's bring those people into the same table and have that decision and that direction together. The third point is the challenge about some lonely times. So some platform challenge starts sometimes as a lonely idea. And it will be up to us kind of to spread those socialize and really bring people to the discussion. So, here we have kind of only one is a wonder if we have two together, there are always going somewhere. And I think this is really kind of the motto that we can bring to the company or to the project that we are working. Kind of bring that idea and really talk about that idea, mention it, allow others to build on it, feel for it. So an idea is something that has energy, that has motion, so allows others to feel it. The other part is also allows other to have the context of idea, how that idea came. What is the problem that we are trying to solve? How do you see this evolving the future? So the concept is that obviously the past and future tenses are the ones that give sense to the present. And if we kind of ask this kind of emotion and energy to the others, they will feel the same. So they will be part of that equation and they will want to be part of the change. And in third part, it's more kind of a reflection in terms of allowing time for that sinking process. So it is okay that the act of sinking doesn't directly produce something that we gave to the customers. And here I'm quoting Melissa Perry in the bill trap. And the idea is that this is really the starting point of everything. So the sinking process is something that is really up to the product manager and we should dedicate really time to this. The third point is that while we are of course dedicating time, we are building a future vision and we can try at least fake that we are ignoring time. So the idea really is that as a platform product manager, and I would say really as a product manager working in product discipline, it's up to us also to sink kind of big and allow us to dream about the vision that we want to build. Of course, there will be always a strategy that we are aiming. There's always kind of some direction that we will be following or driving. But it's up to us to kind of build this dream or kind of this thing big about where we want to land. So the best process are really the ones that give us kind of this butterfly in the stomach. And let's keep it alive, I would say. And second part, it's really let's go the part that we can't control. Because as a product manager, we will be always thinking about where we want to land, what is kind of the dream. But then we will always have kind of all the project manager and kind of business and client timelines saying that this needs to happen this time or there was this kind of MVP or this will be divided in three parts that will fall into the roadmap. So they will take eventually, they will eventually take care of the timing scene. So let us kind of have some time to sink and build this future vision at a bigger scale. The five points, it's really about not getting lost in communication. So I guess that even when we were mentioning the point before, of course, that we need to sink big and bring others to kind of our struggle or into our kind of journey. And communication, it's kind of the most important thing. And the idea is that we need to communicate, communicate, communicate well, communicate in the right way. So again, and I've already mentioned this point before, it's really important to give context to everyone. Just remember that kind of topic that for you is the main topic is not someone else's main topic. So please always kind of give that context to anyone and allows them also to give space to absorb kind of the problem and kind of the idea that you are trying to face. The other part, and I guess probably this is the most important in terms of communication, at least from my experience, of course, I'm not a specialist in communication at all. It's really important to understand the main paradigms and ways of working and kind of relate with the other person. So I say that a good communication always or just works if the other really acknowledged the message and kind of creates a relationship and do something when acknowledging that message. Other way, I cannot always say that I'm communicating, but if the other one is not acknowledged, we are kind of having autism conversation, not parallel world conversation, which is not very interesting. So probably some tips that can help on this part, it's really kind of establish a communication contract with kind of customer with our colleagues. And this can be kind of a communication for tech teams or for the customer that use particular kind of terms and really kind of define what is the format that we want to take, what is the level of detail, what are kind of ceremonies of the interaction. And at the end really put together a glossary that works. And this can be internal and external. It can be things as if I'm talking with the tech team, I will mention kind of ceremonies or kind of art facts. But if I'm talking with kind of design teams, I will be probably mentioning kind of design system. So there are kind of languages, parallel languages that happen around us, and it's really important to try to get into those. And even when we are kind of at level of communication, and we are kind of really creating and generating kind of input output, it's really important always to document everything. So I guess sometimes, and this is really a challenge that I think it's very common between us is like what was really the decision that we took the other day and why I guess we've decided something like that was really our understanding. And I think here we have probably two main potential problems. One is that probably the other part in to understand the same as you. So on that part we have kind of a communication problem. And the second part is that if you don't document, you will never get into kind of that communication and communication equation. So really being content to contact with your colleagues, even if it's kind of about minor change, even if it's about minor scope change, even if it's about adding some to the scope, it's really important to have kind of an aggregated view. And also document not only kind of the final version but keep always the old version and kind of the reasons for the decision because probably you will go back to these old versions and really understand the why and what and how. And then again the idea of contract, establish a documentation contract besides communication one. So what are the formats, what is the level of detail and what is kind of the recurrency that you will review that recommendation. The seventh point is I would say kind of a point that we really need to recognize. So I think we've covered that. Of course we need to understand the kind of the end to end view. And then we were saying that we will need to kind of work in the communication piece. We need to have all these parts in terms of documenting things, but there will be a part of the process. Even if you've done all the syncing process right, even if you dedicate the time and really sound very carefully and wisely what you are doing. There will be times where you will have kind of some disruption moments in terms of syncing and in terms of ideas when working with other people because other people also represent of course different backgrounds. And this represents kind of different point of views. And actually looking into this image, the way I'm seeing the other is not the way the other is seeing me. Of course this represents, first, this represents a common place to everyone, but that's really important. So the idea of putting ourselves in our customers shoes, it's important, but that's on our colleagues shoes do. So I guess to understand really the motivation, what most that other team of that person is the innovation that is the driver is kind of more organization and structure commitment and roadmap big achievements. So really try to understand that will help you in understanding also how to manage these backgrounds. And second point, I say it's really the acknowledge that different point of views may represent really contradictory point of views. And that's not bad, actually. And quoting here, Roger Martin from The Possible Mind. And it really says that kind of the idea to hold to conflicting ideas in a constructive tension, which is a nice term, represents an intellectually advantageous evolution and relief that can also help the decision making process. So what we're saying here is that there's a way and in theory there's a way to go. But if we can also kind of collect this kind of conflicting ideas and really make some good of it and really kind of work in this constructive tension, probably we will even go a step further. The eight point is really the acceptance part. So what we're saying is that at some point in our platform product manager life, things will be chaotic and will be chaotic and wind will blow in one way. And we will try to go to the other way, but point is that that's fine. That's fine that everything is chaotic. And we just need to accept chaos and there will always be things that we won't be in control. But again, that's fine. And I guess my last point is that if we accept chaos and that and that's kind of a truly good feeling. And if we do our job well, actually, there is never an end in this product life cycle and in this product life. And here just for out of curiosity, I have this image from this design houses in Chile. And I think it's really represent kind of the work of a platform manager. Because we are really saying that we are building something very prepared for scalability, right? But I'm already saying I know I will be adding something. I know there will be some future for this. I know that I will want to proceed this, but at the same time, it isn't finished, right? So there's always work to do. There's always some progress to come after. There's always something to improve. So I guess that can sometimes be kind of a bitter taste feeling. But I guess this is really kind of the joy of being a platform product manager. It's kind of really the potential of continuing to build things and really evolving the equation. And I think that's basically it what I wanted to share with you. Thank you so much. I guess it was really a pleasure to share kind of part of this challenge. Hope some of these tips make make sense to you and otherwise also feel free to contact me. Also feel free to kind of disagree recent tips kind of share and additional thoughts with you. And I guess again, thank you so much. It was really a pleasure.